The Only Woman
by shdwanna
Summary: Duke writes a letter. Comicverse, futurefic.


TITLE:  The Only Woman (1/1)  
  
AUTHORS:  Angel Hungerford  
  
EMAIL:  anna@zhadum.com  
  
DISCLAIMER:  Marvel, Devil's Due, Hasbro, blah blah blah. The words are mine.  
  
FEEDBACK:  I stayed up until 1:30 finishing this. Please reward my diligence.  
  
DISTRIBUTION:  FF.net, list archives.  Otherwise ask.  
  
RATING:  PG  
  
SUMMARY: "I can remember the exact moment I knew that I'd remain single for the rest of my life."  
  
A/N: Futurefic. This is sort-of comicverse, but entirely speculation. I'm not sure where this came from.  
  
Dear Storm Shadow,  
  
I can remember the exact moment I knew that I'd remain single for the rest of my life. It sounds cheesy and dramatic, but it was true.  
  
It wasn't all that dramatic, really, and my single status hadn't bothered me all that much, up until that moment. The fact was, I'd had a particular girl in mind, and figured it was just a matter of time.  
  
I'd never had a "see that girl? I'm going to marry her" moment. (Oddly, Flint did have such a moment, back when he first met Lady Jaye, but he'd been joking when he made the offhand comment about how, with his luck, he'd probably end up married to her.) I'd never woken up one day and realized that she was perfect for me. There'd been a number of failed relationships with other girls whose primary flaws involved not being everything I wanted. They were pretty, but not smart, or both, but not tough, or any combination of the two, but not the third.  
  
The basic problem? None of them were Scarlett.  
  
Now I've committed it to print, there's no backing out of it. Yeah, I'm in love with Scarlett. Have been, for years. But I realized a long time ago that I didn't have a chance with her.  
  
I have to give them credit, they were damned discreet. I hadn't had a clue. I can't remember now why I saw them off-duty together, but I remember what convinced me… it was her smile. She was leaning against a picnic table, laughing. He was standing next to her, wearing that ridiculous rubber mask, and she was looking up at him, the way women look at their lovers. You know what I mean - through lowered lashes, sweet and flirtatious, that look that makes the most jaded woman look both innocent and sexy as hell. And she smiled at him. The look convinced me she was sleeping with him, but her smile – it was the smile that convinced me that she loved him. "She's sleeping with him," I actually said it aloud, and out of some wild coincidence, Stalker was next to me. Like I said, I don't remember why we were there – a barbecue, maybe – but he was there.  
  
"Yeah," he said.  
  
"You knew?" Of course he knew. He was best buds with Snake Eyes, and if anybody would know, it'd be him.  
  
"Sure," he said.  
  
"They've been discreet," I told him, or something like that, and he agreed. They were good at discreet, he said. Counter-intelligence, and all that.  
  
I knew I didn't have a prayer, at that point. One smile – and I knew I'd spend the rest of my life alone, because nobody else was Scarlett.  
  
At least, that was what I thought.  
  
Time passed. The Joes broke up, and they were engaged. I went into black ops, whatever I could do, to keep myself busy.  
  
And then something happened. I don't know what, and I never asked him. She didn't know; she called me crying and I was upset for her, but… damn, I felt like I had a chance. When we hung up, I felt like cheering. But I figured I'd give her a chance to recover; they'd been together a long time and I sure as hell didn't want a rebound relationship. Not with her.  
  
What with one thing and another, more time passed, and the Joes got back together. We'd be working together, and they were both consummate professionals. I didn't even worry, sending them off together.  
  
I still hadn't said anything to her – we'd been too busy, I told myself, and when the whole nanomite thing was done, then I'd talk to her. Yeah, I was a coward. And maybe it was all for the best, because as I said before, I was destined to be single.  
  
She wasn't.  
  
When the nanomite mess was over, and we were relaxing for the first time in weeks… well, I saw her smile like that again. Simple, sweet joy as he slid the ring on her finger.  
  
Flint (with the girl that luck brought him close at hand) was talking to me about something just after it happened, when she came up. Scarlett, I mean, not Lady Jaye. She came up and told us what happened, glowing with it, and we all congratulated her. Jaye got excited and squealed, though she'll firmly deny it, and they hugged. The girls walked away, and Flint glanced over at me, and said, "Duke, old dog, I had no idea."  
  
"What?" I asked.  
  
"Don't deny it," he said. "You're in love with Scarlett."  
  
"Completely," I replied, and the truth was not at all what he'd expected to hear. "But it doesn't matter."  
  
He watched her retreating back for a few minutes, glanced over to where Snake Eyes sat underneath the tree, and said, "I suppose not."  
  
"She loves him. She loves him like I love her, and he loves her back, so it doesn't matter at all."  
  
"And how do you love her?"  
  
"Like she's the only woman in the word," I sighed.  
  
He looked at me. "Yeah," he said, and twisted his wedding ring. I don't even think he was aware he was doing it. "I know what you mean."  
  
I went to the wedding, of course, most of us did. I watched the owner of my heart walk down the aisle in bridal white, flowers pinned to her ruddy hair, and marry another man. The only man in the world, as far as she was concerned.  
  
And then he died. A hero to the last, and I can't remember so many things that happened on that mission, but I remember certain sharp details. One of them is her scream when he fell.  
  
She left the Joes, as you know, after taking her revenge on Snake-Eyes' killer. She went home to her family, back to her father's dojo, and gave birth to his son. She named him after his father, of course, the child he didn't know he'd fathered.  
  
The Joes broke up again, I went back to black ops, and one late-spring day I found myself walking down the street in Atlanta, admiring the cherry blossoms and steeling myself for the meeting I was going to.  
  
I asked her to come back, to do one more mission.  
  
She turned me down flat. Her life wasn't about that any more, it was about her son and her business, the dojo that had been her father's. But she went to dinner with me. We were old friends.  
  
I think it was maybe that fact that prevented her from being wary around me: we were old friends, with an acquaintance measured more comfortably in decades than years.  
  
I left black ops when that mission was done; moved to Georgia, settled into a quiet government job – well, quiet compared to what I'd been doing; the type of training I was doing for the military was often quite loud, decibel- wise – and pursued the redheaded owner of a particularly competent dojo.  
  
I don't know when she fell in love with me, but she did. I wasn't the only man in the world, but she loved me anyway, and that was enough.  
  
So that brings me to my point – we're getting married next month. Nothing big, a quiet understated ceremony appropriate to a couple of soldiers who've left midlife behind. I'd like you to be there, if you could. Give us your blessing, after a fashion. You were important to him, and it matters to her that you're okay with this. It bothers her that she can't spend the rest of her life with him, but though we're no longer young, we're not dead yet. His son needs a father, and while I'm no replacement for him – I don't even pretend to fool myself that much – I'd like to think I can at least do that.  
  
And I love her. Have for years.  
  
Tell me what you think.  
  
Yours,  
  
Conrad 


End file.
